Creativity and Innovation

Creativity

Creativity is a function of knowledge, curiosity, imagination, and evaluation. The greater your knowledge base and level of curiosity, the more ideas, patterns, and combinations you can achieve, which then correlates to creating new and innovative products and services. But merely having the knowledge does not guarantee the formation of new patterns. The bits and pieces must be shaken up and iterated in new ways. Then the embryonic ideas must be evaluated and developed into usable ideas. In other words, there really is a process.

Three important levels of creativity:

1. Discovery: The lower level of creativity is discovery. Just as the name implies, it's when you become aware of or stumble upon something--discover it. For example, there is art called "discovered art." It might be a rock with a unique shape or a piece of wood with an interesting pattern. If you have ever purchased a piece of natural stone or wood art, that art was discovered art. Many inventions start with a discovery.

2. Invention: A higher level of creativity is invention. For example, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. But you have to ask yourself, "Would the telephone have been invented without Bell?" The answer is yes. Eventually the telephone would have been invented because the science was there. It might have taken longer, but it would have happened. So while invention is higher than discovery, it's something that is going to happen. If you don't invent it, someone else will.

3. Creation: Creation is the highest level of creativity. For example, the stage playOthello is genuinely a creation. Elizabethan drama would have gone on without Shakespeare, but no one else would have written Othello. Similarly, there are things that only your organization can create! The key is tapping in to what those things are.

10 Strategies for Increasing your Creativity and Innovation

1. Truly creative people have developed their ability to observe and to use all of their senses, which can get dull over time. Take time to "sharpen the blade" and take everything in.

2. Innovation is based on knowledge. Therefore, you need to continually expand your knowledge base. Read things you don't normally read. 

3. Your perceptions may limit your reasoning. Be careful about how you're perceiving things. In other words, defer judgment. 

4. Practice guided imagery so you can "see" a concept come to life. 

5. Let your ideas "incubate" by taking a break from them. For example, when I'm working on a big business project, one of the best things I can do to take a break from it is play my guitar or the flute for a few minutes, or take a ride on my motorcycle. It shifts my brain into another place and helps me be more innovative and creative. 

6. Experience as much as you can. Exposure puts more ideas into your subconscious. Actively seek out new experiences to broaden your experience portfolio.

7. Treat patterns as part of the problem. Recognizing a new pattern is very useful, but be careful not to become part of it.

8. Redefine the problem completely. One of the lines I've been sharing for the past few decades is: "Your problem is not the problem; there is another problem. When you define the real problem, you can solve it and move on." After all, if you had correctly defined the real problem, you would have solved it long ago because all problems have solutions.

9. Look where others aren't looking to see what others aren't seeing.

10. Come up with ideas at the beginning of the innovation process ... and then stop. Many times we come up with several ideas and start innovating, and then we come up with more ideas and never get a single idea done. At some point you have to turn off the idea generation part of the process and really work on the innovation and execution part in order to bring a project to life.

Initiative

Chu Jenn Weng

One of the entrepreneur characteristic is initiative. The initiative means that who is willing to start something, not being left behind and willing to put themselves in challenging situations. Chu Jenn Weng is an entrepreneur who showed the trait of initiative. Chu Jenn Weng is one of the founder Vitrox Corp Bhd in Penang, Malaysia. Chu Jenn Weng was starting up his own business with his partner Siaw Kok Tong in machine vision. Chu Jenn Weng willing start up a business after visiting Hewlett Packard garage in USA and nowadays he become a successful entrepreneur. 

In year 1998, Chu Jenn Weng and his partner start up own business. The operation was operate in bedroom, garage and was moved to Krystal Point after business expand. In year 2000, he was converted from partnership to private limited company and was named ViTrox Technologies Sdn Bhd (VTSB). During start-up level, he was touched upon in every field of the business, starting from sales and marketing, R&D of vision system, part purchasing, finance, service and support.

In year 2005, Chu Jenn Weng was accepted a certificate of merit from Outstanding Young Malaysian (TOYM) Award under Business Economics and Entrepreneurial Accomplishment category. In year 2011, he was accepted Ernst & Young Malaysian Technology Entrepreneur and Outstanding Entrepreneur Award for Asia Pacific Entrepreneur Award (APEA).

Chu Jenn Weng also showed the initiative through target in year 2013 that the target of “555 strategy”, means that the annual turnover of MYR 500 million and has 500 employees. But in the year 2015, Chu Jenn Weng change the plan to the ‘Asia expansion strategy’ of focusing on China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesian markets. Besides that, direct sales force and strategic sales channel partners through reinforcing the group’s presence in North America and South America.

Based on the history of Chu Jenn Weng, can know that he willing to start up a business and have interest in job will become a successful entrepreneur. Besides, he also believe that Malaysian can expand business to global market.

Perceptiveness

One of the characteristic possess by the successful entrepreneur is perceptiveness. Perceptiveness means very well in understanding things and make it clear. Perceptive people are showing an accurate and deep understanding, knowledgeable, and able to see what others cannot. They are able to learn from experiences and transfer that knowledge to new situations.

Every successful entrepreneurs have good perception in seeking the opportunities and become successful in their career. For example, the Smart phone company such as Apple, Samsung, they have good perception in get the opportunities that come out with the touch screen smart phone instead of the ordinary hand phone. They have perception in knowing what the customer’s needs and come out with the solution to fulfil the customer’s requirement. All of this entrepreneur have perceptiveness characteristic which cause them successful in their business. Entrepreneurs who perceptive have an ability to find out more opportunities in the related field. They recognize market dynamics and know how to adjust profitably. Entrepreneurs do not avoid problems but take the problems as opportunities or challenges.

Gerald Pencer, who is Cott’s entrepreneurial CEO is a perceptive entrepreneur. Gerry took over the Cott, which at the time being, it was a not popular soft drink manufacturer when he was 44 years old. Now, it is the world's largest producer of retailer brand pop and it is worth over $1 billion. 

Gerald Pencer showed perceptiveness characteristic when he have took over the Canadian soft-drink manufacturer Cott Corporation and he faced a problem in compete with popular soft drink manufacture, Coca-Cola and Pepsi. If Gerald Pencer does not come out with solution, the Cott may not be well known and success like nowadays. Gerald Pencer have turn this problem become an opportunities. He got the research which indicated that soft drinks were one of the popular selling items in supermarkets. Thus, Gerald Pencer developed Cott as a private-label bottler by made contract with supermarkets and other retail stores to supply a various types of soft drinks that could be packaged under the retailer’s brand. Cott’s product come out with a whole new way of distribution, one that allowed retailers to earn more by giving customers a more cheaper soft drink. Today, Cott is a well-known and the world’s largest retailer brand or private label soft-drink provider.

Foresight

Goh Peng Ooi

Foresight is the ability to see what will or might happen in the future. The entrepreneurs have a good foresight to know about future business environment. In other words, they well visualize the likely changes to take place in market, consumer attitude and taste, technological development and take the necessary and timely actions accordingly. So, foresight is planning thing for the future.

 Example of entrepreneur who showed this trait is Goh Peng Ooi. He is founder and Executive Chairman of the Silverlake Axis Ltd. Through his foresight of the future technology demands of the banking industry, he has built Silverlake to become a leading provider of state-of-the-art digital economy solutions and services for the banking and financial services, payments, retail, logistics and insurance businesses. He is an excellent example of entrepreneurs who have the foresight and vision to challenge the status quo and ask questions that some haven’t even thought of yet. Through his innovativeness and entrepreneurial efforts, Goh has, over a 25-year period, helped transform the digital landscape and act as an enabler for growth opportunities. He has provided comprehensive methods and tools, business

Ethical consciousness

Bill Gates

The development of ethical consciousness is the responsibility of the entrepreneur, because his or her vision created the venture. Ethical consciousness is the willingness and ability to identify moral and ethical contexts and dilemmas, examine the implications of one’s own behavior for the lives of others.

One of the example who showed this trait is Bill Gates, which is from the sector of Information Technology. He is the chairman of Microsoft Corporation. He is one among the world’s famous personality and also he owns around $79.2 billion (Forbes, 2015). He is interested in doing favour for poor people and also he established the world’s largest foundation trust for charity named “Bill and Melinda Gates”. To concern in charity needs, he transferred his position to Mr. Steve Ballmer in 2006. This changes him as an ethical person. Even though he is one among the world’s richest person he doesn’t want to keep all his assets by themselves. Instead of that he came forward to help the poor.